Marblehead names new superintendent of schools

MARBLEHEAD – The School Committee unanimously chose Dr. Gregory Maass, superintendent of Green Bay, Wis. area public schools, as their choice for the next superintendent of the Marblehead public schools.The vote took place at the conclusion of Thursday’s School Committee meeting, ending five months of preparation and a hectic, snow-battered week of interviews with three finalist candidates: Maass, Stan Mack, executive director of the Minnesota Board of School Administrators and former superintendent of the Robbinsdale area schools in New Hope, Minn., and Brad Crozier, assistant superintendent of the Wayland public schools.For the moment Maass is the committee’s preferred candidate for the post, subject to background, reference and medical checks and the successful negotiation of a contract.However, that work is scheduled to be complete by the end of the month and committee members were overwhelmingly positive in their comments about him before the vote took place.Patricia Blackmer called his “depth of experience phenomenal,” Chairman EuRim Chun cited his community-building experience and Kathy Leonardson said, “He knows how to make things work.”Jonathan Lederman said Crozier had “excellent experience at Wayland, a high-performing district,” and Dick Nohelty noted how calm and thoughtful Mack was.In a brief history of the search process Leonardson said that search consultants Hazard, Young, Attea and Associates (HYA) originally put together a list of 25 possible candidates and narrowed that to five using a leadership profile created through community surveys. The Screening Committee met last Thursday, Friday and Saturday to narrow the five to three and the School Committee met Saturday night to discuss them in open session and schedule interviews.Committee members thanked town employees for plowing and sanding efforts that made it possible for them to introduce each finalist to Marblehead this week and Food Services Director Richard Kelleher for providing food for afternoon meet-and-greet sessions. As a result of the meeting schedule committee members got email comments on each candidate as well as in-person reactions. “We didn’t want to lose anybody,” Leonardson said.